Entertainment

$1 Million Netflix Prize To Be Won Imminently

It seemed like the contest that would never end. For the past 3 years, Netflix has been offering a $1 million prize to whoever can improve its movie recommendations by 10% or more. Finally, it looks like someone might have done just that.

The BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos team, which includes AT&T engineers, has just submitted an updated solution that improves upon Netflix's Cinematch movie recommendation algorithm by 10.05%; could it be that the $1 million prize, three years in the making, is finally theirs for the taking?

$1 Million for Movie Matching

If you haven't been following closely, you're probably wondering what this $1 million contest is all about. On October 2, 2006 Netflix announced the Netflix Prize, a contest designed to draw aggressive competition for improving upon their already widely recognized movie recommendation engine. Simply put, they would award the $1 million prize to the first person to improve accuracy of movie recommendations by at least 10 percent (see full rules for more details).

To facilitate the creation of a better recommendation engine, Netflix made available anonymous user data on movie ratings. Why so much openness? Better recommendations mean more satisfied customers, which would make them better poised to compete with the onslaught of movie streaming services now available, and the aggressive direct competition from the former king of traditional movie rentals — Blockbuster. Netflix's real differenting factor is the Cinematch recommendation engine, making it their bread and butter.

Now, according to the leaderboard, Pragmatic Chaos — a coalition of employees from AT&T, Commendo, Pragmatic Theory, and Yahoo Research — has figured out the winning formula. Just last week, Pragmatic Theory submitted an engine that showed an improvement of 9.78%, just a smidgen short of the 10% mark. Today, however, with the 10.05% submission from Pragmatic Chaos, we could see this contest finally reward the diligence of these genius scientists.

All that remains, before a winner is officially announced, is a 30 day buffer period where the rest of the teams can submit a final solution. If nobody can beat them, they'll take home the $1 million prize.

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